Fighting City Hall

I’ve been trying to get the San Francisco Department of Public Health to release the numbers of deaths in the city and they have been stonewalling since August – despite being mandated to provide public records within ten days.

This video is my opening statement at the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force meeting on February 7, 2018.

DPH are hiding behind an State ordinance stating that comprehensive death records are exempt from the California Public Records Act – even though I am not asking for comprehensive records.

My name is Patrick Roddie, I am a geoengineering researcher and activist and I am trying to find out how many San Franciscans have been killed by the spraying in the skies.

Alzheimer’s has risen 135 fold since this started so I just wanted to drill down and find out are there increases on heavy spray days. So, knowing, expecting some pushback I, on August 22nd, asked them for the existence of records; how many records there are for each of these days. That does not violate HIPAA. I’m not asking for names, I’m not asking for nothing, I’m just asking “did someone die?” And I’m told by the custodian of record of the Department of Public Health which houses the Vital Statistics Department that “no, we can’t tell you *if* anybody died.”

When there is foul play you must be able to access death records. If there was an Ebola outbreak, you’d need to know. We have the CDC who wait 23 months to report any deaths. I think we should have access to deaths. I mean, I was a newspaper reporter, you’d call up the cops and say oh yeah, what happened and they’d say so and so died, there was a car wreck.

Deaths are not state secrets – they must not be.

I find it really quite disgusting frankly that the Department of Public Health which used to house and store death records is hiding behind this subsection 102330 section 2 which says *comprehensive* records are confidential. I’m not asking for comprehensive records in either of these things. First I ask how many there are and then I ask for a subsection. In the second one I asked for eight fields and on a California Death Certificate there are forty fields. It is *not* comprehensive. I looked up “comprehensive” in Black’s Law – it’s not there. So, Mirriam Webster “Comprehensive” says: “Covering completely or broadly.” The first one is not at all, frankly. I’m just asking them how many records are there and they’ll say “oh, but that’s owned by the State.” Well, we employ the Department of Public Health to enter data on, transmit data on City property to the State. And that’s secret?

I’m baffled. I’m doing this for the health of everyone in San Francisco and by extent, the world. We’re under assault and the fact that they will not even admit *if* anybody died. Why do we have a Public Health Department? What’s the Division of Vital Statistics even doing there? And what is the Custodian of Public Record doing, apart from stonewalling and blocking every move? Why is this such a secret?

If there’s an epidemic, that’s in the public interest. I haven’t even been told if any of these records are exempt from disclosure any part of them, the existence of the records. Is that confidential?

One of my favorite parts of the Sunshine Ordinance is section 67.36: “The provisions of this Sunshine Ordinance supersede other local laws. Whenever a conflict in local law is identified, the requirement which would result in greater or more expedited public access to public information shall apply.” And the state law is ambiguously written. It does not specify what “comprehensive” is; it says “the indices.” The indices cover every county in the State – Riverside, LA, you know, Shasta. I’m not asking for that, I’m just looking for stuff in San Francisco.

Clearly, we should be told *if* anybody died. So that’s the least I would ask. Thank you.